Chapter 61: Embroiling innocent bystanders in trouble
There was water flowing through an artificial mountain in the Boozt Merchant Guild and the environment was classically elegant and luxurious. A hallway, paved with oval stones, ran through the entire building. Guards wielding longswords and javelins would walk by periodically. It would seem that the defense of this merchant guild was quite serious.
While he had been in Balthazar, Han Shuo had sought information about the Boozt Merchant Guild. He understood that this Guild specialized in trade. To put it simply, the Boozt Merchant Guild leveraged the footholds they had in all the merchant guilds in the Empire to purchase resources and materials from all over the empire and then resold them to places in need, earning their profits from the price margins.
This load of weapons and medicines from Drol would definitely be disposed appropriately if handed over to the Boozt Merchant Guild. This was why Han Shuo had come in search of Fabian. Therefore, he was absolutely looking for the right person.
After traversing three hallways and walking for a few minutes, just as Han Shuo was reflecting that this Boozt Merchant Guild was quite large, the young miss of the Guild stopped outside a loft.
“Farmar, go get Fabian. Giles, you stand guard at the door. Mm. You’re called Bryan right? Come with me.” The girl looked around a bit when standing before the door to the loft and then issued orders to the two strong warriors behind her.
Han Shuo didn’t chatter idly and followed the girl inside after nodding. Soft carpet met his feet and priceless drawing scrolls lined the walls. The room was decorated in an opulent and grand way with a vast chamber inside. A round table was placed in the center, and several chairs were placed around the table.
The girl found a chair and sat down, then creased her brow without saying a word, as if contemplating something. Several strands of brown hair landed on her translucently white, clean forehead, setting off her fiercely furrowed brow and beautiful cheeks. She had lost a few traces of the aloof arrogance she’d held earlier and gained a few hints of melancholy.
She didn’t play host to Han Shuo and he wasn’t shy about things either. He spun a chair around and sat down, taking in the room’s decorations, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, sneaking a few glances at her every now and then.
After a short while, that fatty Fabian came walking in with a fawning smile on his face. When he’d shut the room door, he quickly strode in and bowed in greeting to the girl. “It’s so wonderful that Miss Phoebe has returned safely!”
“Mm. This person has come to find you and says that he wants to do business with you. I also have to discuss a few things with you and so I brought him directly here.” Phoebe nodded her head and said to Fabian.
“Heh heh, so it’s Bryan. It was thanks to you that I was able to escape from the evil hands of those forest trolls last time in the Dark Forest. I thought I would never see you again. Who would’ve thought that you’d come find me a few days after I’d returned to the Empire. What kind of business would you like to do this time?” Fabian had plastered on a professional smile and asked Han Shuo enthusiastically.
“I have a load of resources with slightly murky origins. I was wondering if you’d be willing to purchase them off me?” Han Shuo hadn’t planned to say much with Phoebe sitting there, but then he thought for a moment and noticed that even Fabian seemed to follow Phoebe’s orders. It looked like there was nothing to hide and so he spoke candidly.
“Heh heh, this is definitely not a problem. Anything dirty that makes its way to our Guild will become clean. Don’t worry!” Fabian turned his head to look at Phoebe in the distance and only responded with a sudden smile after he saw Phoebe nod slightly.
Since that was the case, Han Shuo had no further need to conceal things and released a tendril of mental strength, withdrawing the thirteen bags from the space ring. He spoke after placing them in the room. “These are the items. Come have a look and see how much it’s worth.”
Originally sitting there with cold aloofness, Phoebe’s eyes swept a sharp gaze in their direction as Han Shuo took the items out one by one. She suddenly said, “These items come from the town of Drol, don’t they? Judging from the bags holding the items, they should be the tools in which the orc wolf riders use in raiding. Have you seized all of these from the hands of the orc wolf riders?”
Looking at Phoebe in surprise, Han Shuo thought privately that this girl’s eyes were sharp indeed. She had guessed the particulars of the situation with just one glance. No wonder she was the young miss of the Boozt Merchant Guild. Nodding his head, Han Shuo didn’t conceal this information either. He smiled lightly and said, “Correct. I’ve seized these items from the hands of the orc wolf riders.”
Phoebe had been wholly uninterested in Han Shuo prior to this, but her eyes lit up as soon as he’d finished speaking and she stared intently at him, sizing him up. She then opened her mouth and asked in astonishment, “You mean to say that you were the one who seized all these items from the hands of the orc wolf riders?”
“Young miss, Bryan is a very strong mage swordsman. He was the one who singlehandedly scared off all the forest trolls who had encircled me and were attacking me.” Fabian hastened to explain to Phoebe upon seeing that she seemed to doubt Han Shuo’s strength.
Phoebe was even more surprised with Fabian’s words, and her sharp eyes patrolled over Han Shuo’s body. Even Han Shuo felt his heart tighten in worry when she looked at him like that, like some of his secrets would be picked up on.
Coughing lightly, Han Shuo laughed dryly. “I wasn’t the only one who seized items from the orc wolf riders, but I’m in charge of them now. I think you guys should know to take inventory and then give me a fair price, so we can quickly conclude this matter.”
“Alright, Fabian take inventory of these items.” Phoebe nodded and looked at Han Shuo strangely. She didn’t seem to anticipate that Han Shuo would honestly admit that he hadn’t seized these items himself.
An exceedingly soft sound suddenly made its way into Han Shuo’s ears at this moment, like that of a longsword slowly being drawn from its sheath. Han Shuo’s heart leapt as his expression changed slightly. He raised his head to look at the dim roof and said with a cold face, “Who’s on the roof?”
Phoebe and Fabian’s face immediately changed drastically with his words, but three crossbow bolts had already flown towards the three of them with an ear-piercing hiss before the former had a chance to react.
Han Shuo had originally been enraged because he’d thought that Fabian and Phoebe wanted to kill and rob him, but when he saw that the three crossbow bolts were shooting towards each of the three of them, that was when he realized that that couldn’t be the truth.
The ear-piercing sound at which the three crossbow bolts were slicing through the air with indicated how shockingly high the force and speed behind these bolts were. They were obviously fired by experienced experts. Han Shuo’s facial expression was uncommonly calm at such a crucial moment like this. He leaned backwards and swiftly dodged the bolt aimed at him. His right hand had already drawn out his dagger as he chopped at the other bolt, which had been aimed at Fabian.
The bolt, that had been aimed at Fabian, broke apart with a sharp crack as Han Shuo’s right hand became abruptly numb under the extreme force of impact. His entire right arm twinged with pain. This allowed Han Shuo to understand that the force behind this crossbow bolt was incomparably fierce and vicious. If an ordinary person had been holding the dagger during the impact, his whole right arm would have probably been shattered to bits.
Don.
Phoebe suddenly fled in Han Shuo’s direction with a face full of panic and fright. The chair she had been sitting on had already been pierced through by the crossbow bolt. The bolt had cleaved through the chair and was directly nailed onto the carpet. There was an even more durable floor beneath the carpet, so it was clear to see just how frighteningly strong this bolt’s force was.
“Assassins! There are assassins!” Fabian screamed shrilly in this moment and shoved Han Shuo hard in Phoebe’s direction. He called out urgently. “Bryan, hurry and protect the young miss. As long as you can save our miss, I will pay you an additional five hundred gold coins. Please!”
It looked like Fabian knew that Han Shuo wasn’t the type to play hero and save a damsel in distress. His first thought was to use gold coins to buy off Han Shuo in this critical moment.
Just as Fabian’s shrill scream rang out, three sharp cracks sounded from the roof as three inky-black figures suddenly materialized and three longswords, sparking with dark green light, had started cleaving down at Phoebe and Han Shuo. That bone-deep chill made Han Shuo feel awful, like his flesh had been abraded by the blades of the swords.
Dark green fighting aura, this meant that the attackers consisted of three senior knights!
Han Shuo understood that with his strength, it would be difficult to fight one senior knight face to face. Facing off against three senior knights would likely lead to death. The purpose of the three people were obviously to kill everyone in the room. Even if he threw up his hands and retreated now, he would be hard pressed to escape such a fate. The only way out was to delay things until reinforcements arrived.
His magical yuan churning speedily, Han Shuo’s body suddenly moved. Phoebe had already moved to front of him at this time. Han Shuo reached out his hand and grabbed her right hand, pulling her into his embrace. He held Phoebe’s body and suddenly fell to the ground, abruptly rolling beneath the round table in the chamber.
Pilipala sounded violently from the top of the round table. The sturdy, round table broke apart into pieces over Han Shuo’s head. Three sharp blades shot directly at Han Shuo and Phoebe after demolishing the round table.
At this moment, Han Shuo’s necromancy incantation was already complete and the bone dagger wielding little skeleton also materialized out of thin air. It rushed directly towards the first assassin. Beneath the table, Han Shuo lifted his left hand and the crossbow bolt hid in his sleeve shot abruptly at another assassin.